Charges and payments

A charge records its service description, amount, state and encounter. Billing Specialist can inspect the encounter before approving a Draft charge. Approved and Invoiced mark later stages; Voided records a charge that should no longer proceed. Keeping the encounter reference lets billing staff trace a disputed service back to the visit and its patient without changing clinical documentation.

A payment records its patient, amount, receipt time, reference and status. Pending, Confirmed and Refunded show what happened to the receipt. The patient reference lets billing staff review receipts alongside that patient’s encounters and charges. When a patient has several visits in the same period, the Billing Specialist uses the receipt reference and visit context to reconcile the payment with the clinic’s financial records.

• Visit charge. The service and amount belong to a specific encounter.
• Approval. A Billing Specialist reviews the draft before it is invoiced.
• Receipt. Payment status and reference explain the patient-level cash record.

Decide who may approve a charge and who records payments. Agree how service descriptions are written and when a charge should be voided. Define the patient payment reference the clinic will use to match its external payment source. If an accounting system will own invoicing or settlement, agree the connection and reconciliation procedure before staff mark a charge Invoiced or a payment Confirmed. Ask the Billing Specialist to inspect a second charge for the same patient so the team practices tracing each service to its own encounter and explaining the decision to the next shift.

A completed encounter has a consultation charge in Draft. Billing Specialist checks the encounter, service description and amount, approves the charge and then records its Invoiced state. The patient makes a payment later; the specialist records the receipt date, reference and amount, then marks the payment Confirmed after review. In a rehearsal, use a patient with more than one encounter and verify that staff can identify which visit a charge belongs to while keeping the patient-level payment clear. If the charge is incorrect, mark it Voided and preserve the reason in the team’s operating procedure.

• Charges for Review — Find draft encounter charges awaiting a billing decision.
• Pending Payments — Review receipts before confirmation.
• Scheduled Visits — Open the source visit when a charge needs context.

Follow clinical review into billing reconciliation. Check integrations when an external payment or accounting system is involved.